Engineers use the sun to roast New Mexico’s famous green chiles » Yale Climate Connections

Engineers at Sandia Nationwide Laboratories in New Mexico not too long ago gathered on prime of a 200-foot photo voltaic testing facility to roast inexperienced chiles.

“Chile peppers are an enormous a part of New Mexican tradition, particularly with the Latino Hispanic communities,” says Sandia engineer Kenneth Armijo.

Armijo is the son of chile farmers. The style and scent of the roasted peppers is near his coronary heart.

However roasting chiles normally entails burning propane, a fossil gasoline.

“My thought was, hey, can we discover out a approach to roast these chile peppers in a extra sustainable method?” Armijo says.

So his group got down to roast peppers with concentrated solar energy. The expertise makes use of mirrors and lenses to pay attention the solar’s rays — on this case, onto the roasting drum.

Their experiment labored. And Armijo says that in a blind style take a look at, individuals most well-liked the solar-roasted peppers to conventionally roasted ones.

Now he’s planning to check a modular system that might harness the solar’s power to roast chiles – or espresso beans or nuts – on a small scale.

He says the challenge exhibits how renewable power can complement cultural traditions.

“We are able to progress ahead into the longer term in a productive method that additionally propels our tradition,” Armijo says.

Learn: Three widespread myths about photo voltaic power, demystified

Reporting credit score: Sarah Kennedy/ChavoBart Digital Media and Molly Matthews Multedo